Gaylord renaissance plan 'could truly change the face of downtown'

GAYLORD — The chairman of Gaylord’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) believes plans to make Gaylord more pedestrian friendly could take the city in a whole new direction.

Local architect and DDA chair Todd Seidell has been appointed to the steering committee for the Downtown Renaissance Initiative, a project aimed at reworking Main Street and a portion of South Otsego Avenue to be more suited to foot traffic. Highlights of the plan include reducing Main Street to three lanes and adding wider sidewalks and pedestrian crosswalks. The committee is currently raising the approximately $25,000 to $35,000 to complete a concept and design study.

“I think this is potentially one of the best things that could happen to the City of Gaylord,” Seidell said. “It could truly change the face of downtown.”

Seidell said the ultimate goal of the project for the DDA would be to improve circulation of shoppers and diners in the downtown district and thus draw in more businesses.

“They’ll all feed off each other,” he said.

Seidell believes the five lanes of vehicle traffic currently flowing through downtown has been a hindrance to foot traffic.

“We literally watch people not cross the street and not stay downtown,” he said.

Seidell noted that widened sidewalks, crosswalks and reduced vehicle traffic would liken downtown Gaylord to those of Petoskey and Traverse City.

Dan Ralley, Petoskey’s city manager since 2009, said the 2008 reshaping of Mitchell Street to include pedestrian islands succeeded in reducing truck traffic and giving downtown “the feeling it was a little more narrowed and more to a pedestrian scale.”

He said the redesign has been greeted with both approval and annoyance from the public.

“Businesses and residents along Mitchell Street really appreciate the improvements,” Ralley said, “but we have a large number of people from surrounding areas who use it to travel through the city, and they don’t like it so well.”

Gary Kosch, steering committee member and owner of the recently expanded Alpine Tavern near the corner of Main Street and South Otsego Avenue, echoed Seidell’s beliefs. Kosch, whose Kosch Properties LLC has had a five-year presence in the community and also owns the Great Rooms building on Main Street, called the project a “great vision.”

“Making downtown Gaylord a more pedestrian- and customer-friendly area is one of the goals,” Kosch said. “That alone will draw more retail and restaurant traffic downtown.”

Gaylord City Manager Joe Duff, who has served the role for 15 years and now sits on the steering committee, said such a project has been a goal from the start — but other things had to happen ahead of time.

“We’ve always felt this would be one of the most import things we could do,” Duff said. “However, we’ve been paying off the old streetscape and pavilion before we could look at doing anything; we had to make sure we could pay off the first ones.”

Those 1994 debts were finally paid off last year.

Additionally, Duff said the I-75 crossing at Milbocker Road, paving of South Townline Road and reconstruction of McCoy Road were all essential steps for creating a bypass for truck traffic and get officials to take a harder look at downtown.

“We’re grateful we’re at a point where we can all sit down and talk about it,” Duff said.